{{Short description|American TV talk show (1951–1955)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox television | image = | caption = | alt_name = Chronoscope<ref name="Brooks">{{cite book |last1=Brooks |first1=Tim |author-link1=Tim Brooks (television historian) |last2=Marsh |first2=Earle |date=1988 |title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present |edition=4th |location=New York |publisher=Ballantine Books |isbn=0-345-35610-1|title-link=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present |page=152 }}</ref> | genre = Public affairs | creator = Alan Cartoun | writer = | director = Alan Cartoun | developer = | presenter = | starring = Frank Knight<br>William Bradford Huie<br>Larry LeSueur<br>Henry Hazlitt | voices = | narrator = | theme_music_composer = | open_theme = | end_theme = | composer = | country = United States | language = English | num_seasons = | num_episodes = | list_episodes = | executive_producer = | producer = | editor = | location = | cinematography = | runtime = 15 minutes | channel = CBS Television | first_aired = {{start date|1951|6|11|df=y}} | last_aired = {{end date|1955|4}} }} '''''Longines Chronoscope''''', also titled '''''Chronoscope''''', is an American TV series, sponsored by Longines watches, that ran on CBS Television from 1951–1955. The series aired Monday nights at 11 p.m. ET to 11:15&nbsp;p.m., and expanded to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11 p.m. ET after the first season. More than 600 episodes were aired, but only 482 survive, and these surviving kinescopes were donated by Longines to the National Archives.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.c-span.org/Events/Longines-Chronoscope-1952-Summer-Olympics/10737432569/ |title=Longines Chronoscope: 1952 Summer Olympics |publisher=C-SPAN |date=July 29, 2012 |archivedate=October 12, 2012 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012235519/http://www.c-span.org/Events/Longines-Chronoscope-1952-Summer-Olympics/10737432569/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The series featured 15-minute episodes with interviews with notable people of the time, including Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Hubert H. Humphrey, Henry Wallace, Robert Moses, Richard E. Byrd, Joseph McCarthy, Earl Warren, Arthur Bliss Lane, John V. Beamer, Tadeusz "Bór" Komorowski and Clare Boothe Luce.<ref name=archives.gov>{{cite web | url=https://www.archives.gov/research/guides/catalog-tv-interviews-1951-to-1955.html | author=Shamley, Sarah L. | title=Television Interviews, 1951-1955 | publisher=National Archives Trust Fund Board | year=1990 | accessdate=October 1, 2012}}</ref> The show was hosted by William Bradford Huie, Larry LeSueur, and Henry Hazlitt.<ref name=archives.gov/>

Journalist Frank W. Taylor and business affairs consultant Henry Hazlitt were regular members of the three-person panel. The third panelist for each episode was a guest selected for having particular knowledge related to the guest for that show. Frank Knight was the moderator.<ref>{{cite news|title=The Longines-Wittnauer Chronoscope|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/50s/1951/Billboard%201951-06-23.pdf|access-date=15 December 2017|work=Billboard|date=June 23, 1951}}</ref><ref name="Brooks"/>

In February 1954, Clark Getts, former producer of ''Longines Chronoscope'', sued CBS for $150,000, alleging that the network had caused Longines to break its contract with him.<ref>{{cite news|title=Getts in 150G Suit Vs. CBS|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/50s/1954/Billboard%201954-03-06.pdf|access-date=15 December 2017|work=Billboard|date=March 6, 1954|page=4}}</ref>

The program's demise resulted from a disagreement between CBS and the sponsor regarding control. Network officials felt that CBS should have control, because the program involved discussions of controversial public affairs; Longines executives felt that the company should retain control.<ref>{{cite news|title='Chronoscope' To Quit CBS|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/50s/1953/Billboard%201953-05-02.pdf|access-date=15 December 2017|work=Billboard|date=May 2, 1953|page=6}}</ref>

In 1956, ''Chronoscope'' was included in a Congressional subcommittee's investigation of network operations. Getts, CBS executives, and a Longines-Wittnauer official were among the witnesses who appeared before the subcommittee headed by Representative Emanuel Celler.<ref>{{cite news|title=Networks, on Celler stand, tell of inside operations|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Magazines/Archive-BC-IDX/56-OCR/1956-10-01-BC-OCR-Page-0050.pdf|access-date=15 December 2017|work=Broadcasting|date=October 1, 1956|page=50}}</ref>

== See also == * Television news in the United States * Public affairs (broadcasting)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Longines Chronoscope}} * [https://www.archives.gov/research/guides/catalog-tv-interviews-1951-to-1955.html “Television Interviews, 1951-1955: A Catalog of Longines Chronoscope Interviews in the National Archives”]. Compiled by Sarah L. Shamley. ''National Archives and Records Administration'', 1990. * Yazbeck, Alessandro Balteo & Media Farzin. [https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/ARTM_a_00008 “Screen Play: Chronoscope, 1951, 11PM”]. [http://www.mitpressjournal.org ''mitpressjournal.org''] (pp.&nbsp;132–147) * {{IMDb title|tt0366050}} * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ha3ZHOGLeQ Chronoscope interview with Henry Wallace], broadcast 12/28/51, Retrieved September 10, 2013 * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbqB9lxBITU Chronoscope interview with Earl Warren], broadcast 4/11/52, Retrieved September 12, 2013 * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9SVDPV-HsM Chronoscope interview with John F. Kennedy], broadcast 8/22/52, Retrieved September 12, 2013 * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfr6ORAPbvQ Chronoscope interview with Kenneth Younger], broadcast 10/19/53, Retrieved February 12, 2020 * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7pB76dhCw Chronoscope interview with Humbert H. Humphrey], broadcast 12/2/53, Retrieved September 12, 2013 * [https://archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.95739 Chronoscope interview with John V. Beamer], broadcast 3/10/1952, Retrieved February 18, 2015 * {{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95967|description="Longines Chronoscope with Arthur Bliss Lane (March 24, 1952)"}} * {{Internet Archive film clip|id=gov.archives.arc.95716|description="Longines Chronoscope with Arthur Garfield Hays (December 7, 1951)"}}

Category:1950s American television talk shows Category:1951 American television series debuts Category:1955 American television series endings Category:CBS late-night programming Category:Emanuel Celler